Kolkata, March 24 The decision of the disciplinary committee of Trinamool Congress’s legislative party in West Bengal on punitive action against MLAs ignoring party whips on presence in the house during proceedings will be taken on March 29.
The first meeting of the disciplinary committee on the matter was conducted on Monday and was attended by the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Trinamool Congress’s Chief Whip Nirmal Ghosh.
Earlier, a whip was issued on behalf of the party’s Chief Whip for all legislators to be present on the floor of the House on the last two days of the Budget session on March 19 and March 20.
However, over 50 legislators not only remained absent from the House on March 20, but most of them did not specify any reason to the Chief Whip to justify their absence.
Party insiders said that this ignoring of the Whip has ignited the party leadership and they decided to convene the meeting of the disciplinary and seek explanations from the erring legislators on what prompted them to ignore the Whip.
At the end of the first meeting of the disciplinary committee, Chattopadhyay told media persons that a list of legislators who remained absent ignoring the Whip was being prepared.
“The MLAs concerned will be asked to be present for the disciplinary committee members. We will speak to them and only after that any decision in the matter will be taken,” Chattopadhyay added.
The next meeting of the disciplinary committee on March 29, to be chaired by Chattopadhyay, will be attended by other members of the committee namely Trinamool Congress Chief Whip Normal Ghosh, West Bengal Minister of State for Finance (independent charge) Nirmal Ghosh, State Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and State Power Minister Arup Biswas.
Last week, the MLA from the Bharatpur Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district had to face the disciplinary committee for his alleged objectionable comments made about the Leader of the Opposition in the House, Suvendu Adhikari.
However, instead of recommending any disciplinary action against him, he was just cautioned to be careful and refrain from making any such comment in the future.
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